At Stake

February 23, 2017 – NewslettersBy Donna B. More and William Bogot

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The Illinois Gaming Board (IGB) held its February monthly meeting on Wednesday, February 22 in Chicago.

Below is a summary of the Riverboat Meeting and the Video Gaming Meeting. As a reminder, if you have any comments or questions about last month’s meeting or the proposed laws introduced, please let us know.

Member Robinson was absent from both the Riverboat Meeting and the Video Gaming Meeting, and Member Dunn participated via phone due to a medical issue.

Riverboat

The Chairman opened the meeting with a few brief comments. First, he thanked the Legal Staff for their continued hard work. Second, he made mention of a change to the October 2017 meeting: it was previously scheduled to take place in Springfield; however they are now moving the meeting to Chicago.

The other Board Members and Mr. Ostrowski had no additional comments.

The Board then approved the dissemination of the Closed Session Minutes from April 2014 until December 2016. These minutes are now available upon request; however, the information contained therein is often limited.

The Board heard and approved the initial consideration for Boyd Gaming Corporation’s request for IGB’s initial and final consideration and a request waiver of the Two-Meeting Rule regarding their proposed Refinancing Transaction.

There were 37 Level 2 and 90 Level 3 occupational licenses granted and five denials issued.

The Board approved the motion to rescind the disciplinary complaint, DC-1636, issued to Bally Gaming at the November 2016 meeting in which Bally Gaming was fined $10,000 for allegedly shipping gaming media within gaming devices to Rivers Casino rather than separately to the dock site.

The Board issued two new disciplinary complaints against Elgin Riverboat and Harrah’s Joliet. Elgin Riverboat was fined $15,000 for allegedly failing to properly monitor and prevent underage individuals from entering a gaming area, while Harrah’s Joliet was fined $5,000 for allegedly allowing a hard drive with previously revoked software to be installed to machines and subsequently used for gaming.

The Riverboat Meeting then concluded and the Video Gaming Meeting started shortly thereafter.

Video Gaming

The Chairman had no opening comments. The Administrator provided the current statistics informing the group that there are currently 5,833 licensed locations with 25,421 live Video Gaming Terminals (VGTs). The Administrator also made brief mention of expansion legislation that was pending regarding the Riverboat and Racing Acts, but stated that there is no such proposed expansion legislation for Video Gaming.

Similar to the Riverboat Meeting, the Board approved the dissemination of the Closed Session Minutes from April 2014 until December 2016. As stated previously, these minutes are now available if requested.

There were no new terminal operator (TO) licenses issued; however, initial licenses were granted to 28 terminal handlers, one technician and 104 locations. Additionally, there were a number of terminal operator license renewals that were approved. Allied Gaming, LLC; American Video Gaming, LLC; Awesome Hand Services, LLC; Lattner Entertainment Group Illinois, LLC; Melody Gaming, LLC; Renville Gaming, LLC; Skyhigh Gaming, LLC; and Vic Entertainment, LLC were all granted TO license renewals, and Gold Rush Amusements, Inc.’s license renewal was tabled.

The terminal hander, technician and location licenses that were up for renewal this month that provided updated information to the IGB, timely paid their renewal fees and complied with all other requirements were approved. There were no nonrenewals issued at this meeting.

The Board denied the applications of three terminal handler/technicians and the following nine establishments:

The Board also addressed a number of settlements pertaining to previously issued disciplinary complaints.

The Board rescinded the previously entered disciplinary complaint, DC-V-17-05, issued to Kilimanjaro Connection Corporation as it provided evidence it was current with state liabilities at the time the complaint was issued.

The Board granted authority to the Administrator and staff to enter into settlement for each of the following three establishments and rescind the complaints upon receipt of a $1,000 fine for each location: 1) Whit’s End 48, Inc. d/b/a Whit’s End 48, Inc.; 2) Whit’s End 51, Inc. d/b/a Whit’s End 51; and CAC Restaurants, Inc. d/b/a Coz’s.

Lastly, the Board accepted the recommendations and final order of the administrative law judge denying the location license of Karpathos Holdings, LLC d/b/a Nutties Bar.